By Charles Karel Bouely II
Words are powerful, and it's time we start using the proper ones in American vernacular; time to stop speaking to each other as children and grow up and face facts: We are a tragic nation on the decline socially, economically and politically.
As the mouthpiece of the nation, the media is now a national embarrassment where very little news is actually disseminated; news networks have become the social opinion shapers, the hot button issue pushers, each in so much of a rush to keep up with Twitter or Facebook that facts are now a luxury and balanced coverage a fallacy.
On Tuesday, January 5, 2016 I awoke to Fox News hailing the new Donald Trump ad's courage. This first ad of the political season (there's a primary caucus in four weeks in Iowa and I truly, really care who a small group of Iowans feel should run the country) is from Donald Trump and it is so beyond the pale it should not only be pulled off all American television but Trump should be asked to leave the Republican race and not be covered as a credible candidate for President of the United States of America. It is xenophobic, calling for a ban on Muslim immigration, ALL Muslim immigration (there are many Muslims coming from non conflict zones, like say, India, who are zero threat to our safety; in fact, all but a small fraction of immigrants from anywhere are a threat to our safety). It calls for a wall on our border with Mexico that Mexico will pay for (or else what?) and shows border chaos....chaos filmed in Morocco, not Mexico. And he says he'll cut off the head of ISIS (more war?) AND take THEIR oil (so pillage Syria, Iraq?) in some vague footage that panders to war mongers. It is a disgrace.
CNN is busy raking President Obama over the coals for gun control executive orders he is going to issue. . The substance seems to be on background checks at gun shows and what makes a person a qualified gun seller. No offense to the President, but big whoop. People want the 2nd Amendment for Armed Militias, right? So Oregon is going to work?
And Oregon, armed men with guns taking over a Federal building calling for the overthrow of the local and state government...they're white, so they get to be called armed government protesters exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, and the right to protest. Wow. I mean, wow. They are TERRORISTS by definition. According to Webster's online dictionary a terrorist is anyone that uses force or terrorist practices for the progression of political aims. HELLO!
The strategy on CNN, the winning opinion? Why not just wait it out? Why not just let it resolve peacefully? Well, to all Blacks, Muslims, Arabs and Hispanics I apologize. We are killing Black kids without weapons weekly it seems, and there's not a person alive that doesn't know what would be happening if these "protesters" were of the Islamic faith. But they are good old White boys, so we'll just let them be.
The President on Guns
And as for the executive orders, this will be Obama's 228th such order in seven years. He is yet to catch George W. Bush at 291, Bill Clinton at 364, Ronald Reagan at 381, Richard Nixon at 346, Eisenhower's 484 or the grand daddy of the m all, Franklin D. Roosevelt's 3,721.
Writers, columnists, like to wrap up with their conclusion, with their solution, with hope or some sort of pathway to make sense of it all. But I have none to offer. We are moving at a speeding pace towards a chasm from which we can't escape; one from which America will not emerge. We are a young nation, and nations fail, civilizations change and fall.
The United States is on a precarious path that may in fact, end with its downfall and see the rise of China and India as the two super powers of import. We are not United any longer, and media has shown that the divides in the US are so deep they may not be able to be bridged.
Solution? The only solution I have is to leave America for some land that aligns more with my world view or watch as we continue this embarrassing and damaging devolution. The President in his speech on his executive order on gun control said "any sensible nation would..."
It appears we stopped being sensible some time ago, and 2016 doesn't appear to be the year we regain our senses. At least not if the news now is an indicator.
Watch my segment on guns here.